54°40' Brewing Company

Was there a couple of days ago (10-20-2023) and a little off the beaten path. It is located in an industrial area down by the river. Outside seating and that is where most everyone was sitting. Designed to look like a lodge on the inside. Limited menu, but during Happy Hour a beer & burger was $12, not too bad. Most of the beers were just OK, though the Oktoberfest and Porter were really good.

Out of Portland town play day today before heading out to the coast tomorrow. Making our way up the Columbia on the Washington side towards Stevenson, at which point we’ll pull back down to Oregon via the bridge of the gods (where with any luck I’ll be buying salmon from a guy in a parking lot), before running further up to Hood. We’re going to 54-40, which the unusual suspects surmised was the latitude of this brewery and they were incorrect. It would seem that 54 degrees, 40 minutes was the northern boundary line of Oregon before James Polk whooped Henry Clay’s ass in ’44 to become President and then gave England a manifest destiny beatdown just 2 years later. 54-40 or fight? Whoa whoa whoa; I just came looking for a few beers…

Businesses dotting the area along the river, this one sharing a building with their Fastenal neighbor. Large industrial space with mad high ceilings. Front wall has a set of large paneled windows with a display case in between holding brewerania cans and a single flat mounted above. The end & rear walls are done up split 2 tone horizontal wood plank lowers below corrugated curvy uppers running up to the forever ceiling, and the barback wall is done up all plank. Concrete floors and painted ceilings with ducts & wagon wheel chandeliers. Mounted lamps over the barback and the rear panel windows offering brew room views there.

Cut tree slab topped bar, vertical plank wood base, & piping foot rail. Seating for exactly none (get your beer, then stand clear). 12 tap mix & match logo wood handles on a stainless panel on the barback wall center. Shelf with growls and cans above and a cross cut saw with (misery whip) atop mounted. Slat blackboard horizontal boards to both sides listing tap selections with alt colored somethings (Beer, ABV, IBU). Mounted antlers up high with medals a-dangling, and a large bell to one side with a pull cord for you know, making the goddamn thing ring loudly, duh. Some wine bottles displayed and there is vinyl in the corner.

Gas lit stone fireplace piece fronting the loo, with an 1841 Oregon Territory map above and a rifle atop. Merch over there in that corner (me, pointing). Mounted deer head above so he can keep an eye on things. Craft beers of the PAC NW books for sale and children’s books and games for the play. I immediately checked out the beer book for Bert Grant references as there’d be no street cred without.

‘Wall of retired beers’ on the far wall with an American flag over the doorway to the side room/kid’s zone. A single pinball machine (Batman), a photo booth, a Dino egg machine, and some kid’s play there. b/w brewery pics and a cool ‘microbreweries of Oregon’ poster. “How many still exist”, I wonder? Remember the term ‘microbrew’? How far we’ve come.

A dozen and a half mix & match tables and bar counter pieces between the 2 rooms. We sat at one such table, we did. There’s also a bunch of picnic tables in the out front seating pen should weatherings allow for it.

11 beers (Kascadia, Kolsch, 4.8%; Half Cocked IPA, 6.5%; Red Zeppelin, Amber, 5.6%; River Road, Pilsner, 4.5%; Oh Snap!, Winter Warmer with Ginger Snaps, 7.5%; Cloudy with a chance of French Roast, Coffee Lager, 4.5%; Lovegood Lager, 4.5%; John Wayne, Stout, 6.6%; Pretty in Pink, Cranberry Cherry Sour, 4.8%; Sour Wookie, Wine Barrel Sour Aged Boooock, 7.8%; Super Fluffy Kitten, Hazy IPA, 7.1%). I drankeded the River Road Pilsner (crisp, clean, & hoppy), Half Cocked IPA (yay, West Coast IPA, pine, citrus, quite nice), and John Wayne’s Stout (chocolate, roast, yep). Beers were all solid.

And as light foodings are in order, we will abide. The chicken tenders were absurd, seriously, and the fries were cut from the largest potatoes there ever was. Snack gotten on.

Chill place, filled in around us this Friday afternoon. Tunes, yep; Motown seems to follow us around. Nice folks, good eats, and some solid beer.